Tension increasing as crowds build

UPDATE 11:50 a.m.: Protesters have blocked Montgomery Street in front of 555 California, and Tweeters report police using batons to control the crowd. SFGate is reporting several protesters have been arrested for blocking the entrance to the Wells Fargo building.

It’s been drizzling all morning on Occupy Wall Street West protesters, police and the remains of the downtown work force that braved looming disruption to show up at their jobs.

More than two dozen actions and protests are planned today across The City, culminating in a march from Justin Herman Plaza at 5 p.m.

The protests are affecting downtown traffic, with Sacramento Street already closed through the Financial District. Other intermittent and longer closures can probably be expected throughout downtown today.

SF State Journalism lecturer and street photographer extraordinaire Justin Beck (and a few others) are live streaming today’s festivities. Other live streams are available at the OWSW Web site.

SF Appeal’s Eve Batey is live-blogging today’s protests, with Twitter hashtags #owswest and #occupysf providing the best viewing angles.